Introduction

Pinhole Parcel Project2005

The lo-tech nature of pinhole as a medium is ideal for experimental image generation, as its possible to rapidly prototype primitive, yet inventive, photographic equipment for mapping unusual contexts. The pinhole parcel project is thus an exploration of the journey of a parcel – a mail art project in the truest sense of the term.

Posting a pinhole camera, every trace of light the camera encounters during its journey is recorded on the photographic negative, creating highly unpredictable, abstract imagery. The possibilities are endless. The abstract nature of the imagery is influenced by hundreds of variables, from the route taken and the time of year, to the class of post by which the parcel is sent. Parcels were posted from as far and wide as Norway and Australia, with each image returning remarkably different to the last. Indeed, not all the cameras have returned from their journeys. In one incident a parcel was destroyed due to concern over its contents, such is the climate post-911. Every parcel and its resulting image reveals its own unique story.